Set to release in 2011, a fourth film to the Mission Impossible franchise is starting to gain some momentum.

J.J Abrams, the director of Mission Impossible III and this year’s Star Trek has just assigned two writers to the project, Andre Nemec and Josh Applebaum. Those familiar with Abrams’ series “Alias” might recognize their names with executive producing credits from the show. They held that position for four seasons, and are now stepping up to the big leagues through Abrams’ “Bad Robot” company to work on a script for “M:I 4,” using a story they cowrote with Abrams.

As of now, Tom Cruise and Abrams are set to produce, and other than the two aforementioned writers are the only ones on board.

“I’ve been looking forward to working with Josh and Andre again for years,” said Abrams. “Their sense of balance between character and action is wonderful, which I know is hugely important to Tom as well. We’re off to an exciting start, so as usual, fingers crossed.”

The Mission Impossible franchise is a series that seems to focus more on meeting action blockbuster quota than serving a dedicated fanbase (because I doubt one really exists). Especially with the last two Mission Impossible films, explosions and stunts seem to have been key ingredients, not to mention the obligatory wire-hanging scene. It is rather unlikely that this franchise will ever reach beyond a good fix for scenes that involve Tom Cruise driving a motorcycle through some flames. There doesn’t seem to be much of a demand for one.

That being said, I will say something else. “If you make it, they will come,” mis-quoted from Field of Dreams, but certainly fitting for this series. Especially with Abrams’ fanbase growing with his recent Trek success, M:I 4 will definitely have an audience, not to mention those that still believe in Tom Cruise. While I found the third film to be mighty self-indulgent on Cruise’s part, (beyond action hero standards), there’s little reason to shut down a new film. The mission for part four and the others is simple: entertainment. Abrams definitely knows how to complete that task.

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5 Comments

Love to disagree, but MI: 3 is one of the best pure action movies in the past decade. Easily in my top ten (which I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head). And MI: 2 was much higher on the self-indulgent scale, but I feel like that had more to do with Woo than Cruise.

I agree with Jeff. MI:3 was insane. Definately not a low-brow action flick. Nick — I think you know there’s a dedicated MI fan base. But your dislike of Cruise is distorting your sense of reality. Don’t feel bad, it’s that way for a lot of people. In fact, there are those out there who pretend Cruise is not a good actor. Was the couch-jumping a mistake? Yes. He even says so. Is being religious in hollywood a mistake? Sure it is. But can you deny the guy is bad at what he does? Not if you’re being honest with yourself. You don’t have to like him, but you can’t say his performances are bad. For you younger folks, check out: “Born on the 4th of July,” “Jerry McGuire,” “Magnolia” and even “Rainman” and

I am not entirely sure if I actually came off “anti-Cruise,” but that wasn’t my intention. I’m not one to hold an actor’s personal life against his or her work, but I am one to call them out when it seems like their influence on a film is a bit too excessive, and when their star power seems heavily in control. It has been about a year and a half since I’ve seen M:I 3, but I still have memories of Cruise going above and too beyond to make Ethan Hunt a wire-hanging-super-duper-action hero. I would be lying to you and myself if I said I didn’t enjoy the first two (I have a poster of M:I 2 proudly decorating my door at home) but I at the same time struggle to believe that M:I 3 was anything above a decent action flick.

As for the “dedicated fanbase,” I do mean that, even if that sounds harsh. I never hear people talk about this franchise in general, and I am sure many, many moviegoers would be challenged to name a character outside of Ethan Hunt. Basically, if there was no M:I 4, I don’t think there would be much complaining, never mind a search party investigating where it went off to.

And yes, Cruise is a good actor, Magnolia is probably my favorite performance of those you mentioned. I still can’t give him too much credit for Rain Man however, possibly because it’s difficult to focus on anybody by Hoffman in that movie.